San Marcos free press. [volume] (San Marcos, Tex.) 1877-1892, 1887-08-18
sHAyS COIN W. N

OF ltseif, make tue proJect utterly
abortive, since tho fact is well known
that these courts are already loaded
down with more work than they can
accomplish, and would be obliged TO
forego even an attempt to adjudicate
these titles. To hope for their speedy
settlement through such project is
simply preposterous, and its emphat-
ic approval by the grant owners OF
the Territory is proof positive OF the
fact.
Equally vain is the hope of relief
through the machinery of what is
known us the Edmunds bill, which
has repeatedly passed the Senate, and
as often been disowned by the House,
1t refers these claims for adjudication
to the District Court Of the territory
in whose jurisdiction the lands are
situated, with the right of either
party to appeal from its decision
within six months to the Supreme
Court of the territory, and from the
decision Of that court within one
year to the Supreme Court OF the
United States, which is behind with
its work four or five years. In all
cases in which the judgment of the
District Court shall be against the
United States, an appeal must be
taken to the Territorial Supreme
Court, and also to the Supreme Court
of the United States, unless the At
torney General shall otherwise direct.
The cases are thus to be tried in
three several courts, and 1t is pro-
vided that in all of them oral evidence
shall be heard, while in the two
lower tribunals it would be practical
ly impossible to try the cases at all,
by reason of their overburdened ter
ritorial business. While such n
measure would certainly breed liti-
CATION and be very acceptable to
lawyers, it could not fail to prove a
mere mockery of it's professed pur-
pose; and it ought to be entitled "an
act to postpone indefinitely the set
Element of all titles to Spanish and
Mexican grants, and secure to their
claimants the unmolested occupancy
and use of the same.
In my Judgment, what is obviously
wanted is simple enactment OF Con
gress referring all these cases to the
Secretary of the interior for final de.
cision. They are all on the files OF
the General Land Office, including
duly certified copies of all the papers
in each case, the evidence, both doc
umentary and oral, the reports OF the
Surveyors General, and the supple
mentary reports recently submitted.
The questions of law and fact involv-
ed are by no means remarkably in
tricate or difficult, and they are such
Us the officials of the Interior Depart
ment are accustomed to examine and
competent to decide. They involve
no greater interests than those
constantly adiudicated by the head
of that department, with the help OF
his able legal advisers. or course,
mistakes might be made in deciding
these cases. No infallible tribunal
has yet been devised for the settle
ment of legal controversies. Even
our higher courts sometimes go as
tray; while 1 have already shown
what travesty of both justice and
law was the action a the California
Commission, and that Congress, by
slipshod legislation in dealing with
these grants, has surrendered to
monopolists and thieves millions OF
acres of the public domain. No such
results need be apprehended from
the Department of the Interior In
any event, there would be a settlement
of titles, which is the paramount de-
sire of all good men. The authority
of Congress to do what is proposed
is as unquestionable as its authority
to create u commission or TO refer the
cases to the courts. Should it be
done, coupled with statute OF limi-
t,ltion fixing time within which new
claims shall be presented or there
after be barred, the whole oi these
long pending contests can be dispos
ed of within the limit of three or four
years, and New Mexico will have a
new birth in the restitution OF her
stolen domain and the settlement OF
her titles. The stream of settlers
now crossing the Territory in search
OF homes on the Pacific will be ar
rested By the new order of things
and poured into her valleys and
plains. Small landholders, thrifty
tillage, and compact settlements will
supersede great monopolies, slovenly
and industrial stagna-
ton. The influx Of an intelligent
and enterprising population will in
sure the development OF tue vast
mineral wealth of the Territory, as
well as the settlement Of her lands;
while the men who have 50 long rev
eled in their triumphant plunder, and
are already troubled with "a fearful
looking 10 OF Judgment 10 come, will
be obliged to take back seats in the
temple Of civilization which will be
reared upon the ruins Of the past
All this will come to pass il Congress
will bat open the way.
GEoRGE W JcLnS.